Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-03-04
Il RUM CURSE.
'rl,e Effect of Alcohol on the Human
Body-Some Startling Facts.
From the Toledo Blade.

BOdy-SOme Startling RACES.
From the Toledo Blade.l
There are, unfortunately. q great many
Good. honest people in this land of ours.
Who have the impression fixed in their
minds shat beer, and wine, and whisky are,
in some manner, of use in the human sys-
tenn. They decry the immoderate use of
Rum. yet ding TO the idea that in small
quantities it is not harmful. but rather ben
%efcial. This error-for error it isis un-
fortunately supported by a large number OF
doctors, especially those of narrow reading
and limited educational advantages in early
life and in the study of the theory Of medi-
cine. The best educated physicians of the
present unhesitatingly agree that Rum-or
its active principle, ALCOHOLICS not only
not a food, but that even as a medicine it
can be dispensed with, its place being sup
piled by safer remedies, which will produce
q better effect, with none of the evil results
which the use of alcohol entails.
The class of conservative, or poorly
educated physicians have, as q rule, no
personal Investigations nor experience in
the matter, but merely quote the theory
proposed by o medical writer of some re-
pute, a number of years ago, that up to a
certain point, alcohol is consumed or dis
posed of in the human system; that up to
this point alcohol is not only harmless, but
acts the part of q food; and this limit is
fixed at from an unce to an ounce and o
half Of alcohol per day. Above this limit
which was assumed to vary with different
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. was admitted to be in
furious to the drinker. This theory you
will find quoted by medical men to-day, in
the most grave and impressive manner.
Notwithstanding the fact that its fallacies
have been shown up, its conclusions have
been proved %unsound, and the whole thing
relegated for a long time to its proper place
among the exploded and untenable theories
of the past, along with the doctrine of
signatures" and other medical trash.
What, then, is the affect upon the bodyof
taking alcohol, in any of its many forms,
into the human system? It must be placed
among some one of these five classes of
substances:
First-Among the true foods, which u
ply new material for the building up of
the bodily tissues and supply nerve force
or heat;
Seconds one of the accessory foods,
which, while not performing the office of q
true food, yet facilitate nutrition, like salt
or the acid principles of fruit;
Third-As a medicine, to correct impaired
functions of the different organs;
Fourth-As a poison, which produces in
furious effect upon the tissues or functions;
Fifth-As an inert body, which passes
through the alimentary canal without being
absorbed or producing an effect whatever,
as does a small seed, for instance.
Alcohol must necessarily belong to n
of the above five classes, as they cover all
possible cases of articles which are taken
into the stomach. 1t is plain that it does
not come under the fifth class. Everyone
knows that. 1t produces certain effects,
which differ in degree, but not in kind,
owing to the amount taken into the system.
Let us, then, inquire what are those effects,
in order that we may decide under which
of the first four heads it shall be classified.
II q capsule be filled with alcohol, SO
that not a particle touches the tongue or
mouth, in a few minutes its odor will be
p%erceptible on the expired breath. This
shows that it is being thrown off by the
lungs in an unchanged state.
A chemical examination of the perspi-
ration and urine shows that they contain
alcohol in IN unchanged state. Thus We
have it demonstrated that the lungs, the
kidneys, and the sweat-glands of the akin
three great excretory agencies OF the
body-set to work as soon as the alcohol
gets into the blood to work it out of the
system. 1t is excreted in an unchanged
state; it is alcohol, nothing more or less.
Hence it cannot be a food. True foods
are assim,lated by the system, and, after
performing their functions of producing
heat or force, or building up the tissue,
are excreted in an entirely different chem
icai form from the original one. Sugar,
1t is thrown off from the lungs, not as
| c1,uor ht,t DC no rhoni0 ooif OoS-un1 fron,
the other excretory organs in various COM
binations, but not as sugar. The same is
true of all other true foods. Not n of
them is thrown off in an unchanged form.
Hence alcohol is not a food.
Then which of the other three classes
does it come under? Is it an accessory food?
Does it facilitate natures processes? The
universal voice of the highest medical au-
thorities is that it does exactly the opno-
site. 1t binders digestion, for example.
Now, in this way we know the popular
opinion is just the opposite. At a state
dinner, for instance, when a very large
quantity of food is taken into the stomach,
the general idea is that liquor of some kind.
wine or brandy, facilitates digestion bv
aiding the stomach in the work of getting
rid Of the mass of food. The fact is, how.
ever, that it does nothing of the sort. 1t
deadens the nerves of the stomach,
SO that we lose consciousness of the
uncomfortable load. The process of
digestion is retarded by two or three
hours. In the other parts of the
system alcohol diminishes the waste of
the tissues. But this is an evil. in that it
keeps in the system molecules of matte
which have fulfilled their office, and are
but a burden. They should be thrown off.
But alcohol keeps them within the body;
hence the unhealthy load of fat which the
bloated and blotched drunkard carries
about with him, if he have plenty of food
to eat. Alcohol suspends animation-puts
on the brakes, slows up tissue change, and
conduces to passivity, or a sort of life
which is perhaps more nearly allied 10
death than to true living. DR.. Parkes
found that even moderate amounts of alco-
hol administered to a laboring man de-
ranged the hearts action, and greatly less
ened his working power.
Hence it is not a true food, not an acces-
sorry food; therefore it must be either a
medicine OF a poison. But all medicines,
practically, are poisonous. when taken in
any but very small doses. Let us quote DR..
Foote, of New York, on this subject:
"The origin of alcohol will give us 6
strong clew as to its nature. 1t is the pro.
duct of putrefactive processes, found more
in dead than in living tissues. and its mair
source is the fermentation du to the &C.
tivity of q low form of animal life. ii
$40 orc ~ IN 49,